Ch.149Chapter 149 – Knight of Stone (1)

“Finally, we’ve arrived.”

Beatrice said, looking at the distant ruins.

“From here, it certainly looks like there’s nothing there.”

Standing beside her, I made that comment, and Beatrice nodded.

“Well, since we’ll be using detection magic, we shouldn’t be caught off guard too easily.”

When Beatrice said that, I suddenly felt uneasy.

Usually when someone says something like that, we end up getting ambushed.

“You’ll detect well, right? The others aren’t as sturdy as you, so be extra careful.”

“Oh, I think Sera will be fine…”

At my words, Beatrice scratched her cheek slightly in denial.

And at that moment, Sera grabbed Beatrice’s shoulder.

“Ms. Beatrice, did you call for me?”

“N-no. I was just joking. I know how fragile you are, so please calm down and don’t squeeze so hard!!”

Beatrice’s words got faster toward the end, but ultimately a ridiculous “Eeek!” escaped from her mouth.

A moment later, Sera released her grip on Beatrice and gave her a sidelong glance.

Then she sighed.

“I’m a girl too, you know. Please don’t tease me like that.”

“…Kids these days are too scary.”

Beatrice distanced herself from Sera.

And suddenly curious about Beatrice’s comment, I asked a question.

“Kids these days? Just how old are you anyway?”

“Don’t ask about that, Helmet. Age is just a decoration.”

Beatrice immediately thrust out her fist in a threatening manner.

Come to think of it, I don’t know the exact age of not just Beatrice but Eve as well. I wonder how old they are.

“Kay, I’m almost the same age as you, right?”

How far does “almost” extend, exactly?

And I became slightly curious about Eve, who jumped into the conversation as soon as age was mentioned, even though I hadn’t even looked at her.

Seeing her deny it like that, she probably thinks she’s older than me…

‘Actually, I don’t even know my exact age either.’

The age I wrote when joining the guild was just arbitrarily put as 24, but honestly, I don’t know my real age.

In other words, I could possibly be younger, or much older.

“Excuse me, everyone? Isn’t this not the time to be discussing our ages?”

Even Christina, who had been quiet until now, chimed in.

“Since I’m the youngest anyway, I don’t think it’s a big issue.”

Christina, who was one year younger than Sera, held the title of the youngest in our group.

At Christina’s words, Eve and Beatrice both cleared their throats.

“Hmm, anyway, we shouldn’t worry too much about ambushes. If we focus on detecting living beings, we’ll catch everything.”

Beatrice spoke with confidence.

No matter how well hidden or disguised something might be, if you search for the life form itself, it would inevitably be detected.

For now, I had no choice but to trust her.

“I’m counting on you.”

Beatrice nodded once at my words.

Then Sera approached me and carefully held out something like a ball.

“Oh, Kay. Take this with you.”

“What’s this?”

“It’s a bomb I modified.”

I carefully reached out and took it.

Since we know for sure that our opponent is made of stone, this would be an effective weapon, but…

‘Is it safe?’

It would be a disaster if it exploded on our side before we could even attack.

As if sensing my concern, Sera spoke up.

“Ah, it won’t explode in its current state.”

“It won’t explode now?”

Then how is this a bomb?

At my question, Sera smiled and slightly pushed out her ample chest.

“Would you like to take a closer look?”

As Sera suggested, I examined the ball from various angles.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed something like a flat piece of paper attached to it.

“What’s this?”

“After you pull and remove that, it will explode when impacted.”

So it’s basically a grenade.

I was curious how she managed to make a grenade that only needed a paper to be pulled, but I decided not to ask.

I wouldn’t understand it anyway.

“So, it won’t explode at all while the paper is attached?”

“Unless it receives an impact much stronger than I anticipated, it should be fine.”

I nodded again at her words.

I should still be careful just in case, but it should be safe enough.

Seeing Sera also attaching one to her waist for easy access, she seemed confident in its safety before removing the paper.

After attaching the bomb to my waist, Sera seemed to remember something and approached me.

“I’ve prepared more potions as well.”

Saying that, Sera took out colorful potions.

And with a smile, she said:

“With these, we should be able to recover sufficiently with just potions, unless someone is critically injured.”

There was confidence in Sera’s voice.

Eve smiled at Sera’s words and said:

“You’ve prepared thoroughly. Thank you, Miss Seraphina.”

“This much is expected of an alchemist, isn’t it?”

Sera replied with a smile to Eve’s comment.

Everyone took a moment to praise Sera.

“Well then, let’s go now.”

Everyone nodded at my words.

We hid Moo and the carriage, and started walking toward the ruins.

We walked toward the traces of what was once a village, wary of any monsters that might jump out along the way.

“All the houses are buried in the ground.”

“They said it was a large landslide.”

Still, at this scale, the monster groups that reportedly frequented the village would surely have left.

As I continued to look around, I saw some houses completely buried and others that more or less maintained their shape.

“At this rate, I wonder if what we’re looking for is still here.”

Like Beatrice said, I honestly started to worry a bit too.

All we know about Sera’s grandmother’s house is that there was a bent tree in the yard.

With a landslide of this magnitude, there’s a high chance that not just the tree, but the entire house might have been swept away without a trace.

“Let’s pray it’s still here.”

And so, step by step, we walked through the ruins.

“Beatrice, are you detecting anything?”

Getting worried that something might attack us soon, I asked Beatrice, and she shook her head.

“For now, no life forms are detected other than us.”

Hearing that, Christina tilted her head.

“Could they have left?”

“That would be nice.”

But I had a feeling it wouldn’t be that easy.

We continued to move forward cautiously, keeping an eye on our surroundings.

-Crack

“Huh?”

I heard a sound.

“What’s wrong, Helmet?”

“I heard something.”

At my words, Beatrice turned her gaze.

And after a moment, she smiled and said:

“Given that nothing’s showing up on my detection, I think you might have misheard.”

That’s what Beatrice said.

If it didn’t register on her magic, then it probably wasn’t there.

‘No.’

It was at that moment when I instinctively felt danger.

-Crack crack crack!

“Damn it!”

I immediately changed my weapon to a mace.

Gripping it with both hands, I swung it down hard in the direction of the sound.

-Clang!

“What the?!”

The sound of something rising from the ground being hit by my mace.

I heard everyone in the party exclaim in surprise.

And right away, Beatrice kicked something.

-Thud!

With a heavy sound, something flew into a wall.

It broke through the remnants of a fence and fell over.

“Wow, ouch, that’s hard!”

Beatrice said, shaking her leg.

I quickly looked at her.

“Did nothing really show up on your detection magic?”

“Nothing showed up, really.”

She also frowned as if she hadn’t expected this situation.

Thinking this wasn’t ordinary, I cautiously approached where whatever had attacked us had landed.

-Crash!

“So it’s not dead yet.”

I quickly took a combat stance and looked at whatever had risen.

It was a knight holding what appeared to be a lance and a shield.

However, its body was made of stone.

“So that’s the stone knight.”

Seeing the subject of the rumors, I took a combat stance.

And the stone knight with the lance charged at us.

I quickly swung my mace to parry the lance, slightly deflected it, and then hit its body.

-Thud!

With a dull sound, stone fragments fell off.

‘It’s tough.’

My fingertips tingled slightly.

I felt like it was either not ordinary stone, or though it was composed of stone, something was enhancing its hardness.

“But it’s not too tough to break!”

After changing my mace to a hammer, I swung it horizontally.

The dull sound echoed again as the creature’s shield blocked my hammer, and I quickly stepped on its shield and jumped into the air.

“Miss Seraphina!”

-Crack crack!

The sound of Eve calling Sera and a grating noise from the creature came simultaneously.

Soon, with the sound of stones colliding, the creature moved its body and raised its lance high.

‘It’s just stone, it can’t pierce my armor.’

I thought I could easily destroy it at this rate, but at that moment:

-Whirrrrr!

Suddenly, the creature’s lance began to spin rapidly.

“What kind of drill is that?!”

The momentum of the rotation was no joke.

I thought that if I got stabbed by that, it would cause a serious wound.

But I couldn’t change direction in mid-air.

I was debating whether to deflect the weapon or aim for its head when:

-Boom!

With an explosion, the creature’s lance separated from its arm.

Whether it hit the arm precisely or not, the arm had completely disappeared, and the masterless lance was seen rolling on the ground.

At the same time, I saw iron chains piercing through the ground and binding the golem.

“Think I’m just playing around?!”

Beatrice was holding the chains.

And Christina reached out to me and shouted:

“‘Grant the body robustness’!”

A golden energy, stronger than before, seeped into me.

Silently thanking them for their timely support, I swung my hammer down at the creature.

-Crash!!!

A terrifying impact sound echoed.

My hammer completely shattered the creature’s body, and it made a crackling sound as if it was its final scream.

-Crack… crack.

The golem continued to twitch, making that grating sound for a while.

But before long, that irritating sound stopped.

Looking at the shattered golem, I let out a slight sigh.

“…Phew.”

One down for now.

“…It’s broken.”

“Yeah.”

Eve and Sera approached and said.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Fit as a fiddle.”

Eve nodded slightly in relief at my words.

Meanwhile, Sera had walked past me and approached the debris.

After a moment, she picked up something from the shattered golem’s remains.

“What’s this?”

“Ah, that’s the core.”

Beatrice seemed to know, as she approached her and said:

“Golems usually have a core made of magic stone inside. They’re controlled through it. Commands can be given from outside, or someone can go inside to move it.”

“You seem to know a lot.”

“Of course, even in the magic tower, golems are researched.”

Beatrice added that they mainly focus on how to reduce the cost of expensive materials.

“Then who was controlling this golem?”

At my question, Beatrice examined the core with a magic circle floating in front of her.

After a moment, she spoke:

“No. It has an automatic command set. It seems to be an order to repel anyone who approaches.”

Beatrice added that the sorcerer probably isn’t here.

“Repel anyone who approaches?”

“Yes… conversely, I’m getting the feeling we’re definitely in the right place.”

Beatrice said with a smile.

“‘Repel anyone who approaches’ means there’s something hidden here, right?”

She was right.

There’s no reason to deploy golems to repel intruders in a place with nothing.

At the very least, the golem sorcerer either hid something here or knows about it.

“What is the golem trying to hide?”

“I don’t know yet.”

As she said this, Beatrice examined the debris for a moment.

“By the way, it’s really well-made.”

“Is it?”

“It moved quite smoothly just with autonomous actions. Most golems can’t show such movements.”

Beatrice grumbled that it wasn’t unreasonable for people to describe it as if it were a living being.

“And it seems to have been well-programmed with tactics too, not just stupidly appearing alone but emerging from underground.”

“Earlier, it even tried to counter-attack in response to my attack.”

Though armor would be tougher than stone, I didn’t expect it to try to counter-attack in that situation.

Thanks to the appropriate support from everyone, we overcame it, but if I had been caught off guard, I might have been injured even with armor.

“This golem sorcerer is no ordinary person.”

“Yeah, if they’re directly controlling the golems, we should consider retreating at least once.”

I nodded at Beatrice’s words.

Safety first, safety first.

“Let’s move quickly for now.”

“I think that’s a good idea too.”

Sera agreed with Eve’s opinion as she pocketed the golem’s core.

“If we stay here, we might get attacked again or they might come in large numbers. If this place is important, they wouldn’t have deployed just one golem.”

“Just thinking about it is terrifying… I hope that doesn’t happen…”

Christina responded with a bitter smile to Sera’s words.

And right at that moment:

-Rumble rumble.

“…Hey, I think we lingered too long.”

Beatrice looked at me with a slightly panicked expression.

“Surely not, right?”

“No, it is that ‘surely not’.”

I looked at where Beatrice was pointing.

I could see golems with stone weapons charging towards us.

Definitely more than 10 in number.

Though they should be emotionless, there was something ominously threatening about their movement.

“They run well.”

They were moving smoothly, just like humans.

It was hard to believe they were made of stone.

And I immediately turned to my companions and shouted:

“…Run!”

Without anyone needing to be told twice, everyone started to flee.